Topic: Path to a Masters

[Whitey]

Ok, I did the college thing after high school and quit after 3 years only to find myself going back years later to get my BS. I, of course, choose the quickest path to a Bachelor's degree so I could be qualified enough to get a proper visa and work permit. Now I hold a BS in Liberal Studies. It is, in my opinion, a BS degree, but it is from an accredited university and it does satisfy the powers that be. Now it is time for a masters in order to get to a bit higher level of jobs.

Now the hard time is finding out which path to take, should I go for a masters in TESOL or in Instructional Technology, a field that interests me a bit more and might open more fields. Any opinions?

[Mods-Rockers]

A name is a name, it kinda depends on the establishment that you intend to study with I guess and also what the curriculum is!

[airpuka]

it depends on what you want to do.If your a teacher for life then i suggest getting your masters in education from your home country that way you can get licenced and work in an international school and make big baht.

[bomha]

Whitey, it is not easy to play the academic game.  A BS in coal-mining from the Univ. of Cardiff does not get me into Oxbridge or Harvale.  If your liberal studies degree from a barely-accredited uni in the USA carries only a fair GPA (or whatever you Yanks call such marks), and if you are now considering an M.Ed. in Islamic Instruction in Insurrectional Inanities from the Univ. of Southern Mindanao, maybe they won't care.

Do you want to teach grammar and "So, peeps, howze all you-uns doin' today, eh?" until your grandchildren enter graduate school?  Do you want to teach "Literary History of the Early Brrrrrrritish Empire" in some outpost of Queen Elizabeth's realm?  Forget Thailand; twice burned is forever spurned. 

There must be a better 30-year future in IT instruction than there is in TESOL.

[Krungsri]

I agree with Airpuka.  I’m not sure if a TESOL Master’s will license you to teach in places where more widely based teaching qualifications are required for registration as a teacher.  You’d need to check that.  Some education authorities will require a teacher education qualification in addition to the Master’s in TESOL before registering someone as a teacher.  However, if you can get registration either before or after completing the TESOL Master’s, the TESOL qualification can be quite useful.

When I was hiring people in Australia as literacy and learning support teachers quite a few candidates had a TESOL qualification and they were often the best candidates.  Likewise, people teaching languages other than English and regionally based consultants or advisory teachers for language and literacy education often had a TESOL qualification.  It was a useful thing to have even if you were not working in the TESOL field specifically.  The understanding of language and language pedagogy gained in a postgraduate TESOL course was valued by employers.  I’m thinking of Graduate Diplomas and Master’s degrees, though, rather than Cambridge and Trinity courses, useful as they may be for teaching ESOL.  (Also, all the people I'm referring to had general teaching qualifications and experience as well.)

Still, if you don’t have a particular interest in language teaching and learning, TESOL may not be the best way to go as a long term career choice.  In fact, if you don’t have a real fondness for teaching, a qualification for something other than teaching is probably best.

Incidentally, all the qualified teachers I know with TESOL qualifications and experience have been able to diversify quite broadly.  They've certainly not had to spend their lives in a classroom unless they wanted to.  Those who like being permanent classroom teachers have been able to make stable and satisfying school-based careers for themselves.  They love teaching.

[7baht]

$125,000 baht a month  average starter pay in the international elite schools for real teachers. $30,000 baht a month average salary for non teachers with tefl hanging out in thailand.

I think Brick Layers and Welders are still bringing home more than most CEOs in Thailand

If your really willing to work for this amount then continue on with the dream of teaching in Asia.

[bomha]

Please, 7baht, those comparisons lack accuracy.  Perhaps 125K per month is a high or average pay for the best real teachers in the best real international schools.  But there are farang English teachers making 45K without having western credentials, and Thai school directors making 125K including incomes from tea money.  The Bangkok Post just listed the richest Thai CEO's and you can be sure that those dollar billionaires were making over five million baht per month.

But I will agree that the dream of teaching in Asia (TEFL in Thailand, anyway), and getting rich, is just a ganja dream.

[7baht]

did i mention the word MOST  or ALL in reference to CEOs   ok  i stand corrected.

if we are talking government schools..i concur on the salary and tea money.

[anyonefortennis]

should I go for a masters in TESOL or in Instructional Technology, a field that interests me a bit more and might open more fields. Any opinions?

I think you answer your own question..................if you're gonna do your masters ffs do it in something that interests you. Don't get sucked into the Thai way of thinking that a MA / MSC = clever c*nt, do it because it interests you.